SCASSSS - Drack. One Man Blob.

I was sat in a novice faction war plex when a war target entered system. I was in a Tristan, he in an Algos. I saw a medium plex open up. He was in warp, I could potentially catch him on the gate.

But a Tristan vs an Algos?

Feck it! BALLS DEEP MAN!

I landed and went for him. I think it surprised him that a T1 frigate was going for his Destroyer. A very close fight later and....

I put "GF" in local and was responded to with...

Erm..... blob? Oooooookay..... I know, I'll fix the killmail for you....

Better?

Ghost Station - Part 1

Fiction Friday! Escape pod here.

In other fiction related news the results of the Pod and Planet Fiction Contest have been announced. I got 1st and 2nd place in the comedy category with "Angels and Sinners" and "Artificial Stupidity" respectively. My serious piece also was placed in joint 3rd in the 8000 Suns category. This is the first time any of my serious entries have been placed! Now is it that I'm getting better or is it that the new judges just have better taste?

Anyway this new one below ran away from me a bit. It got over ten thousand words so I'm made it into bite-sized chunks and four parts. Its a horror story set in the Eve universe.


Ghost Station - Part 1

Gakoho had never known silence like it. If he stopped walking and held his breath there was no sound at all. For someone who had lived his entire life on space stations and starships, it was unprecedented. He was used to constant background noise. The hum of the life-support system, the rumble of the engines, the subtle vibrations of the reactor. Here there was nothing. Just total silence. He stopped holding his breath. The sound of his rapid breathing now echoing loudly around his helmet. He looked around. The rest of the crew were with him, all kitted out in EVA suits and slowly walking down the ruined corridor. Every so often they would pass a breach in the outer hull. Gakoho would stared out into deep space. If he fell out of that hole he'd tumble into the black forever. Of course with the magnetic boots it was impossible, but he had thought about it. He needed to break the silence.

"Cap. We sure this is a good idea. This station is giving me the willies."

"Knock it off Gakoho. Its just a station. Just like hundreds of others we've visited. Only this one is abandoned. Having been wrecked in a massive fireball. With no atmosphere. And no gravity. And no living persons onboard except us. And everyone who was onboard may or may not have been killed nearly 90 years ago by a computer malfunction."

"Geez Cap, you sure do know how to put a guys mind at ease."

The Captain laughed through the comm system.

Gakoho had been serving on the salvage frigate "The Magpie" for nearly a year. Like many who crewed on these run down ships it was more a career of necessity than choice. His wife had ran off with another man. That had hit him hard and he soon lost his job which had also lost him his home. He'd taken a posting as salvage boom operator on the Magpie as a jobless, homeless and desperate man. He had spent the last six months cutting up wrecks of starships in space for their valuable metals and parts. It wasn't a wholly bad life. He had a job, crewmates and a bed. It may have not been much of a life compared to what he had previously, but it was a life none-the-less.

"Talking of living persons, Oinu you there?" the Captains voice echoed over the comms unit addressing The Magpie's pilot.

"Yeah Captain. I'm snug as a bug in a rug in the cockpit, which is the only place on this rust bucket you can be snug. Everything is shut down and running on absolute minimum power. Pretty sure the cops won't spot us unless they run some pretty intense scans on the wreck's interior. However, with everything shut down they could be knocking on the airlock right now and I'd wouldn't know."

The Captain acknowledged Oinu and it went silent again. Gakoho thought about everything that could go wrong. The Police were a real threat. They shouldn't be here and the cops would happily throw all their asses in jail if they were caught for trespassing and theft. Then there was the fact the frigate was running cold. It would take nearly an hour to be fully powered up again. If this wrecked station started to fall apart there would be no speedy escape. So many things to go wrong, so many ways to die.

They had known about this abandoned station for years. They had even discussed a few times how they could attempt to salvage some of it. Each time they had decided it was not worth it. It was on a busy shipping route near a stargate and the authorities would soon show up if they started hacking chunks of tritanium off the hulk with their salvaging drone or boom. Then a few days ago the Captain was approached by an agent. Apparently he worked for a rich collector who specialised in old computers. He'd pay good money for the central computer core of the old station that they were currently on. Apparently there was an urban legend that the station was not just abandoned. There had been an incident. Something about a problem with the stations computer core. There had been deaths and the whole thing had been covered up. The collector wanted the core for his collection so he could regale his guests with colourful stories about its sordid past. Problem was the core was located deep inside the rusting hulk of a station. This required the Magpie to carefully fly into the one of the ruined hangers and manually dock. The crew had then suited up and entered the lifeless station leaving Oinu to man the ship.

Gakoho glanced behind him. Mitokka, the ships doctor looked white. She was fine in a sick bay surrounded by the bleeding and the dying but in a EVA suit in a vacuum she looked lost and scared. The Captain had insisted she'd come in case of injuries. Her protests that she'd not be able to do anything in the vacuum of space had not gotten her anywhere. Then there was Elanoda the ships engineer. He looked most comfortable out of the group having logged months of EVA time over his career. When the ship broke down, Elanoda usually had to go outside to fix something, and the ship broke down a lot. Then there was Sakkatokka the scanning technician along with and Tatsari. They were an item these days. Tatsari didn't have an official title on the ship. Generally it was seen that if something, or regularly someone, needed hitting, Tatsari would hit it.

They finally reached the central computer core room. However for the first time in five hours, they had found a closed door. It took Elanoda almost half an hour to cut through the secure lock on the manual door. It appear to be locked from the inside. As Elanoda and Tatsari prised the door open, there was a rush of escaping gas as the door opened a crack.

"My god there was atmosphere still in there!" Sakkatokka exclaimed.

"Well there isn't now. Come on lets go." growled the Captain. They prised the door open fully and stepped in. The central computer core stood in the centre of the room. A cylindrical pillar six feet high and two feet in diameter. The crew stood silent. There was a body there. A tool like a screwdriver was in his hand and was wedged into the side of the core all the way to the handle. The sealed atmosphere had preserved his corpse from where he had fallen. He was wearing overalls like a station technician. One shoulder appeared to be covered by a rusty brown stain.

"What in Divinities Edge?" Elanoda stated.

"Blood." Mitokka stated. "This man was badly wounded. There are stains on the floor from the door. He was bleeding badly before he got in here."

"Nobody move!" the Captain growled. "Sakkatokka use the holo-recorder. Get that in a hi-res 3D recording. I'm guessing our sponsor will pay a lot more for the core if he has this image to go with it! Sort of backs up the legend that computer problems caused a disaster on this station."

Gakoho stood still and tried to work out what had happened. It didn't look like he was maintaining anything, it looked like he was plunging the tool into the core to do damage. Was that what caused the station to become abandoned. This act of sabotage? Why would someone do that? Or was it like the captain said and this dead man was no saboteur but an injured hero trying to save the station?

-o0o-

Ninety years ago.......

"He was spying on me?" Haalonen asked in shock. She was sat in her bosses office along with a high-level suit from their corporate HQ.

"I'm afraid so. It appears he was infatuated with you. We've got a lot of evidence from the servers here. Some of it is sensitive and I want you to know only I and one of our investigators have seen some small sections. Some of the videos are, well, personal. We will ensure it is all wiped."

Haalonen felt herself turn red. They had told her that hidden cameras had been found not only at her workstation but also in her apartment on the station.

"I cannot believe it." she muttered. "Why?"

"He's a nerd. Most of our best programmers are. You know what they are like. Socially awkward. Scared of approaching the opposite sex. He probably thought you were his girlfriend although you never said more than a polite greeting each day." her boss surmised. "I'm afraid there is more."

Haalonen looked worried. She'd been working for ZiaTech Communications for over a year. They specialised in remote access software and communication encryption using AI algorithms. Cutting edge programming. She's casually known Ylomo. He was slightly younger than her. A total geek who she always smile and said hello to but nothing more. She'd not invited any of this stalking!

"The 'issues' six months ago with Chiku. HR told us about them when we were discussing the current events. We think that was him."

Haalonen broke down in tears. Chiku had been her long term partner. They had lived together on the station. One day six months ago she noticed his datapad screen was on. It wasn't locked nor had it gone to sleep. She had trusted him, but still she couldn't resist. She opened the recent files and found a series of horrific video files. They were so disgusting she had reported him the the authorities. He had been arrested at work. They found more on his office computer and on memory drives hidden in their apartment. She had never seen him again as bail had been refused. The trial had been quick as the evidence was so strong and he'd been sent to an asteroid penal colony for fifteen years. She'd needed some time off work and had explained everything to the head of HR. Haalonen started sobbing uncontrollably.

"He set Chiku up?" she asked.

"We think so. We've found what sounds like similar video files on his drives as well as the access codes to your apartment. He could have easily planted the files on Chiku's computers and slipped in to plant the memory drives in your place. We've informed the authorities to what we've found but it'll take some time for them to investigate."

"Where is Ylomo now?" she asked.

Her boss went quiet for a moment.

"I'm afraid we don't know." he finally admitted.

"What!"

"Look, he's the best programmer in the system. He can hack anything. He could be hiding out somewhere on the station. He might have left on an InterBus shuttle using a false ID. We're pretty sure he's not dangerous. However, you just need to be careful. We'll find him, its just going to take some time. We've got help coming to review what damage he's already done and to track him down. We've got the best of the best on this. Don't worry, in a few hours we'll know everything. In the mean time we don't want you to go back to your place. I've booked you a nice hotel room. Go, order room service, watch some trashy Gallente Rom-Com and I'll call you when we've got him."

-o0o-

Matari techno music blasted out of the speakers in the pitch black room. Rows of computer terminals streched across the room, each with a person at the keyboard. It was midnight station time and the cyber club was busy. Ylomo leaned over the monitor to block anyones view of the screen. A black hoodie was pulled up over his head to hide his face. On the screen he watched her on the hacked security cameras enter room 1045 at the Jasma Marquis hotel on deck 14. Should he send her some champagne? Some flowers? No, he needed to concentrate on resolving the problems he had. The third man was arriving now. He swapped windows to hanger 32's overview. The shuttle arriving was apparently carrying Ekulela, an ex-hacker turned security consultant. His ex-boss and the corporate investigator were stood on the dock side waiting for the ship to complete its docking procedure. They had ruined everything with Haalonen. Now they were going to try and catch him and put Ylomo in prison for a very long time. Ylomo knew he couldn't let that happen. He'd not survive on an asteroid penal colony. He'd be some gang-bangers bitch from day one. Probably passed around as a favour for a packet of smokes or a contra-band holovid. No, he needed to stop the investigation and make amends with Haalonen. She'd understand. She'd forgive him. When she knew how much he loved her they could live happily ever after. He just needed to stop the investigation. He went to work.

Down in the stations computer core the monitoring routines didn't see the intrusion. It was subtle, it was hidden. The code carefully weaved its way through the various firewalls and security routines. Eventually it reached the central command processor code and started to embed itself. Ylomo now had control over the advanced AI that controlled the entire station. It disabled certain security protocols and rewrote operational rules to allow Ylomo to give commands it would not be able to carry out with the safety protocols in place.

Back in the cyber club Ylomo glanced around nervously. All he could see was other geeks engrossed at their console. He'd half expected a troop of heavily armed guards to come stomping in, his virus in the core detected and traced. When he was sure his intrusion had been unnoticed he started programming it with new routines. He was currently on his own. Having an advanced AI on his side watching his back would be helpful. He'd ask it to help him win Haalonen. It would have some good ideas he was sure, AI's were smarter than humans. At no point did he think that an artificial intelligence designed to run a station would not be much use in giving tips on wooing women. He still embedded the task along with the others into the memory banks.

He glanced at the other window on the screen which showed the security cameras. The shuttle had docked and the passenger door had opened. A few people stepped out. Ylomo noticed Ekulela  amongst them. He'd heard of him before and seen him in news stories. One of New Edens best hackers, reformed and now a security consultant. Apparently he was good, very good. He could ruin everything. The three men, threats to Ylomo, were stood together in the hanger shaking hands and greeting each other. Probably laughing and joking how they were going to catch him and put him in jail so he could never see Haalonen again. Ylomo's lip turned up in a snarl.

"Frack you guys!" he whispered and hit a button.

Down on the docking platform the three men had just finished their introductions and were walking towards the exit. They noticed a number of people stood by the door. One was jabbing the controls furiously.

"Damn things stuck!" one complained as they neared.

"Call control and tell them to over-ride it." another suggested.

Haalonen's boss stopped suddenly. A terrifying possibility hit him. He span around and looked at the giant forcefield covering the entrance to the hanger. The blue shield that held the atmosphere in the hanger pulsed as normal, the large lights in each corner a solid green. The powerful energy barrier allowed ships to pass through whilst keeping to atmosphere of the hanger in. He breathed a sigh of relief. He was getting paranoid. He turned back to the group and opened his mouth to speak but was cut off as a klaxon sounded. Amber warning lights started to strobe around the hanger. Everyone fell silent for a second before chaos erupted. There was a mad rush for the door which would not open. Haalonen's boss slowly turned back to face the hanger forcefield. Red strobes flashed in each corner. He froze, realising it was too late. A tear ran down his cheek two seconds before the forcefield vanished in an instant and the contents of Hanger 32 that were not securely affixed to a surface were flushed into the frozen vacuum of space.

Up in the cyber cafe Ylomo grinned. The fact he'd killed nine innocent people hardly registering. He'd taken out those who wanted to keep him away from Haalonen.

Down in the computer core the AI was processing the data both from Ylomo's malicious code, but also the events occurring in hanger 32. It was learning. It started to work on the question it had been asked. How could Haalonen and Ylomo be together forever. The AI started to process possible scenarios using its vast resource of information on both people and humanity as a whole. It took four point eight seconds to select the plan of action most likely to achieve Ylomo's wishes.

To be continued.....

Overheating in Eve Online. A Quick Guide.

It is a while since I last covered overheating and in that time I've finished Thermodynamics V and overheating is a lot more use to me now. Its winning me a lot of battles when soloing. If you already know all there is about overheating go and read Eveoganda or something!

This is a basic guide giving you what you need to know rather than delving deep into the mechanics.

Overheating? Wut?
You can set your modules to overheat by shift+clicking them or clicking the small section in the top green section of the icon. Only some modules can be overheated and these tend to be active modules not passive ones.

Whilst they are overheated they will get a decent bonus. Your points and web will reach further out, your weapons will cycle faster giving better DPS, your scan resolution will be higher, your reps will be faster and give you more HPs per cycle, your prop mod will propel you faster, etc.

A few examples of how overheating modules can improve your important internet spaceship (numbers for ships piloted by Drack):-

Merlin, Overheated Guns
Normal DPS - 205
Overheated DPS - 236

Breacher, Overheated MWD
Normal MWD speed - 4040 m/sec
Overheated MWD speed - 5783 m/sec

Cockbag Thrasher Overheated SeBo's
Normal Scan Res - 1673
Overheated Scan Res - 1858

Tristan Overheated Armour Repper
Normal DPS repaired - 92hp per 4.5 sec = 20.44 HP/sec
Overheated DPS repaired - 101hp per 3.8 sec = 26.58 HP/sec

Sounds great! Why don't you permanently overheat ALL THE THINGS?

The reason is the modules themselves take damage when overheated. The more modules you overheat, the more heat is generated. The more heat modules take the quicker they get damaged. This is shown on the UI:-

As you can see my low's are 27% heated currently as I'm overheating the repper. As the modules get hot they take greater damage. You can see this by the red bar that creeps around the icon slowly. Hovering over the icon tells you the percentage damaged they are.

As you can see my repper is 31% damaged from the overloading I've been doing. Be careful. You hit 100% and the module is buggered and will stop working. It will go offline and cannot be onlined until repaired. Sort of a major issue during fight.

You can turn off overheat at any time by shift+clicking or clicking the overheat indicator a second time.

Simple enough? Here are some tips-

Train Thermodynamics skill to V
The science skill of Thermodynamics reduces the damage taken by overheating by 10% per level. At level five, modules only take half of the damage from overheating. That's why Drackarn can overheat his small repper for the majority of a fight or get seven full volleys from T2 280mm arty cannons.

Roughly know how long you can overheat various modules for.
Each module takes a different amount of damage per cycle and has a different number of hitpoints. Somethings like MWD's do not like being overheated and will quickly burn out. Others like small armour reppers can be overheated for a long time before they die. You don't need to know exactly how many cycles (although I know that my Thrasher gets seven shots from its T2 280mm artillery cannons on overload before the guns burn out) just how well they do and how much attention you need to pay to them. Remember in a fight overheating is more loading on you the player. You may need to manage range, drones, cap, ewar, ect depending on your ship. Overheating adds to this complexity.

Fitting Management is Important
Heat spreads and different modules put out different amounts of heat. Anything physically next to the module overheating takes heat damage as you overload it. If two overloaded modules are placed next to each other they will take damage faster due to shared heat build-up. Its a good idea to space overloadable modules with non-overloadable modules between them. If you fit your modules in this order- point, MWD, web, shield extender and sensor booster and overheat the first three that is the worst possible thing you can do. The heat damage will burn them out faster than normal with the MWD in the middle getting the worst of the damage but also seriously damaging your web and scram as overheated MWD's really kick out excess heat. If you place the extender and sensor booster in between them they act as "heat buffer zones" and they'll not die quite as quick. Ideally you want the MWD buffered between the edge of the ship (first or last slot) and the shield extender. An example of what problems heat can cause is below. See that passive hardener has taken damage? Thats due to heat from the repper!

Pre-heat is a Saver for Some Modules
Some modules you want to pre-overheat. Examples include scram and web when a potential kiter is warping into you or you are camping a gate. A web that reaches 12km can be the difference between your target burning away and kiting you to death or it being stuck in your iron grasp! MWD's are useful to give a big boost to speed either to catch an asshat or to burn out of point range in a slingshot escape. Just be careful. MWD's don't like being overheated and soon burn out. Armour reppers are a good one to pre-overheat when flying frigates. In my Tristan I always pre-overheat my armour repper if it has one. They can really take the heat and you'll get a 10% bonus to the amount of damage repaired and a 15% decrease in cycle time! It also stops you forgetting in the heat of the battle. I've learnt that pre-overheating the repper should be done at the same time as activating DCU's. ie When you jump into system. If you are activating that module then you REALLY need it.

Heat Early in the Fight
Why save the overheat to later in the fight? You might be already be beyond saving by then. Overheat early and turn it off when it gets too hot. If all looks lost you can turn it back on towards the end of the fight. Just make sure you don't waste your overheat. Overheating small blasters loaded with null when your target is still 20km away is a waste. Overheating your active armour repper when you are still in shield is a waste. Save the heat for when you need it.

Carry Nanite Paste
If you survive the your modules will be damaged. You can return to station and use the repair facilities there. If you have nanite paste in your cargo bay you can right click the module and select "Repair". Takes a while but it'll be as good as new soon (tm).

Try it Out!
An example of how overheating wins a fight that you might lose otherwise. Sat in active armour tanked short-range Tristan with blasters at warp in of a FW plex.

Get enemy on short-range scan.
Check armour repper already pre-overheated (but not active).
Guns pre-overheated.
Is the ship on scan a potential kiter? Navy Slicer, Condor etc? If so overheat scram and web.
If its not a kiter, activate prop mod on ready to burn at them (could land 3k away max) / If its a potential kiter, prop mod off but pre-overheated.
Enemy lands. Scram, web, burn at them.
When within 1km activated preheated guns.
If scram and web overheated, turn off overheat. (Sir! We have them!)
Deactivate prop mod (which obviously also disables overheat if I used it).
When guns are around 75% damaged stop overheat.
When low shield alarm goes off, stand-by on armour repper. When entering armour activate pre-overheated repper.
Check my tank verse targets tank. Are they breaking? Do my guns need to be overheated some more (risky now)?
Keep eye on repper heat damage (should be OK for many cycles).
Am I going to win, lose or is it too close to call?
Win? - OK, keep doing what I'm doing. If they try to GTFO overheat AB to keep up.
Lose? - Time to try and GTFO. Overheat AB and align out hoping extra speed will get me out of their point range so I can warp away.
Could go either way? - Keep overheating, watching damage bars and cross fingers! Balls deep man! Balls deep!

Scram Kitey Arty Stabber

I was flying about in a Thrasher at the end of last week when I noticed Deryn Angrard in local. He's a fellow Ex-QCat and now with Black Fox Marauders in the Gallente Militia. Deryn Angrard is a pilot I have a lot of respect for. He's a great solo'ist and good bloke. A few targeted scans with the D-Scanner showed me he was in a medium plex in a Stabber. I docked up and looked at what I have to go after him. There was a Stabber in my hanger there but it was a really weird fit. A 720mm artillery Stabber that was needed by an FC for one fleet. Other than that single time its never been used. I spot an AutoCannon Rupture and decide to use that. Warping into the plex I see Deryn Angrard there with his drones out at 20km from the warp-in. He engages but is flying a kitey AutoCannon Stabber. I cannot catch him, but at this range his DPS isn't huge. I give it a minute but my DPS isn't even tickling him out there but his DPS is slowly wearing me down. I sling-shot to get out of point range and head back to station.

I grab some long-range ammo and swap a couple of mods trying to get a fit that will counter his. I undock and go back. I'm damaging him this time but still not enough. For a second time I overheat the MWD and sling-shot back to station grumbling to myself.

Now what?

Option 1 - Ask for help.
Plenty of corpies and alliance mates in local. I could get something tackle-ish and then get the guys to blob him. No, no I couldn't. That wouldn't be right, not on Deryn. I want to solo him.

Option 2 - Get some links.
DA didn't have links so that would be a bit unfair if I got some of my own. I want a fairly fair fight with this guy (Warning - this is a rare situation. Don't expect this treatment from me for most of you! Its not that I'd happily shoot you in the back, I'd happily shoot you whilst you were on the 'job'.)

Option 3 - Try a different ship.
Most of my cruisers and higher hulls are still in Nisuwa (traded to an alt account as I cannot dock there). I'm really low on suitable ships to go up against a kitey Stabber. That Stabber I have with the 720mm's would be ideal if he stayed at 20km. However as soon as I fired and he saw that I am arty fit he'll burn in, get under my guns, swap to short range ammo and tear me a new one. So thats no good.

HANG ON A MINUTE!

That's exactly what he will do. Its what anyone would do who knows the game mechanics. So if I know what he'll do, can I use that to my advantage? Mmmmm its a crazy idea but it might just work. Where's my mid-slots can? OK, right everyone sing the A-Team theme song whilst I light this blow-torch and black-up like Mr T.

Dah, dah, dah... dah-dah.... dah.....

I undock the re-fit Stabber and warp to the medium where Deryn Angrard is still lurking. I warp in and he's again at 20km. I lock him up, fire and for the first time I put some proper DPS into him. However, I only get one good volley before he's MWD'ing towards me. As he reaches 10km I activate the scram and web and overheat the 10mn afterburner. His momentum gets him close and my next volley hardly tickles him. However I'm now gaining range slowly. His DPS is tearing me apart but my volleys from the arties are getting better as I make range away from him.

We are both in structure. Alarms are going off. My overheated mods are in danger of burning out. It is going to be epically close. The sound effect to signify de-aggression sounds meaning either I'm dead or he his. I don't know if you've noticed but that deaggression sound usually comes first before any explosions or notifications. It means your weapons are deactivated either by your ship exploding or your targets ship exploding. Which is it this time?

I wait the micro second to see if I get capsule ejected notification and a big-ass explosion. I don't. It was Deryn that popped. I scoop the loot and warp to station as I'm in bad shape and a shit-fit Ibis could probably take me down right about now.

We exchange "GF" in local followed by this that made me chuckle:-

[12:52:08] Deryn Angrard > never ever seen a scram kitey arty stabber before

He's right, its a very, very odd fit. However, just as the original ship was fitted for a specific purpose, this fit was made simply to counter Deryn Angrard's Stabber on that specific day and in that specific plex. Here is the fit I used which is a mix of the original arty stabber and the mid-slot mods I swapped out to make a fit to counter Deryn's Stabber.

4 x 720mm T2 Arty
Rapid Light Launcher

Scram
Web
Painter
10mn AB

Reactor Control
1600mm Plate
EANM
DCU

2 ACR
Trimark

Yes, its a shit-fit. Yes, I doubt it'll ever get used again. Yes, I'll probably be stripping it down and reusing the hull when needed. Yes, if I had lost it would have looked bad on my killboard.

However the moral of the story is never assume anything in Eve Online. It'll bite you in the ass.... or kill your ship using tactics that makes you go....

SCASSSS - Filthy Gorgeous

For todays Special Sunday Short the new asteroid belt effects which are now on the test server.

Just like the (YouTube link NSFW) Scissor Sisters hit they are, well, filthy gorgeous!

And of course we also have the new Exequror hull with its foldy down engines.....

Actually, lets put them all together....

The Last Night in Nisuwa

Fiction Friday plus its a rather long one given people are probably not doing much today. Happy 2015 and hope your year is full of pew-pew, ISK, minerals or whatever you do in Eve!

The Last Night in Nisuwa

Gryve skillfully meandered through the packed bar, a plastic tray containing a dozen one litre glasses of strong Matari ale was balanced expertly on her finger tips. Two Hulk class exhumers had docked an hour ago and the bar was full of thirsty 'roid miners. It was typically her luck that two barges had docked so close to each other. As she approached the table she put on her best smile. A drunken roar went up as the group realised their drinks order had arrived. Gryve quickly distributed the drinks and managed not to flinch when she felt rough fingers playing with the waistband of her short pleated skirt. She glanced down to see one of the miners pushing a note into the waistband.

"There ya go love. Have one on us!" he said giving a grin that showed he had half a dozen missing teeth.

She politely smiled back and returned to the bar retrieving the merge two-credit note slipped into her skirt's waistband. How did her life fall so far in such a short length of time? She was actually thankful for the tip, ironically as once she had enough she'd be able to escape this place and not have to put up being pawed by drunken asteroid miners. Two years ago her family had moved from the heart of the Federation out into deep low-sec space. A new opportunity without the bonds of bureaucracy her father had said. A temperate planet, unspoilt by heavy industry where they would become colonists and live the good life on a farm. It was clean living, it was healthy living, it was utterly and completely boring! She was 17 at that time and was wanting to go to university but her family could not afford that. So she ended up stuck with them on a back-water planet far away from the bright lights of the Federation. Isolated on a small settlement on the 5th planet of the Nisuwa solar system she nearly went stir-crazy. Going from a massive bustling Federation city of millions to a small town of 300 was too much for her. Thats where she met him. A year after they arrived another family moved in to the town looking for the quiet life. Bruffrer was their son and he was in the same situation as her. Forced by his family to live on this backwater planet. 21 years old, Gallente, gorgeous. After being together for nearly a year they decide they needed to get back to the Federation. They snuck onto a supply-ship to get to the orbital space station above. From there they'd planned to make some credits and then get an InterBus shuttle to Dodixie. She wanted to be an actress and he would be a stunt-man in the massive holoreel industry. Really, had they both been that naive? Yes, yes they had she thought. It had all come apart on that station. She managed to get a job waiting tables in a miners bar on deck 20 and he got a job with maintenance scrubbing atmospheric processors. They were saving money, but it would take them six months to save enough for the shuttle tickets back to Federation space. Longer if Bruffrer didn't stop drink so much of their savings every night. They relationship had become strained under the stress. Then three months ago there had been a massive fight at the bar she worked in. Two rival mining crews had got into an argument over veldspar or something silly and utterly trashed the place. The owner had sent the serving staff home whilst the maintenance crews fixed the damage. She'd walked into her crappy apartment tired, bruised and depressed to find her boyfriend on top of some skinny Caldari slut on the sofa. She'd kicked him out and never saw him again. She couldn't go back to her parents, so she had stayed on the station. Her savings were slowly increasing, but too slowly. He had been the major wage earner. A waitresses salary would not quickly get her back to the Federation. So here she was. Sharing a run-down one-bedroom apartment with two other girls and stuffing her nightly tips in a tin labeled "Escape Fund". The local InterBus fare scheduled was fixed to the back of the tin. She had crossed out each hop in the journey with a thick black pen as her savings reached that point. So far she could make it to the system of Heydieles. Still in low-sec and still two solar systems away from the border of Federation space proper.

As she reached the bar she saw the owner standing there with a suited Caldari man she'd never seen before. He was tall and very, very thin. In fact he looked sick. Her boss beckoned her over. Whilst the station was officially State Protectorate and therefore Caldari, the Gallente Federation had captured it years ago. Most Caldari had left for systems controlled by their State and the Gallente had moved in enmass. However, there were still some Caldari about, especially at the top.

"Gryve, I'm loaning you out for the night. Grab your stuff and go with Mr Shigakkari here."

Gryve put her hands on her hips defiantly.

"Loaning me out? What am I, a spare chair? A box of glasses?"

Her boss sighed.

"Look Gryve don't give me any shit. I'm not happy out it either as we're not exactly over staffed right now. This is important. You are to go with this guy and work tonights shift at another club where they are even more short staffed. I'll get a discount on my rent for the week which makes ME happy and you get triple time which should make YOU happy. OK? Win-win and all that shit?"

Gryve looked stunned. Triple time? Not something she would argue with. She glanced at the suit who just stood there and suppressed a shiver. She had no idea who he was but he looked like one of these Caldari corporate executives who would screw you over for an extra point two of a percent if he could.

"I don't know." she said hoping to get even more.

"Miss, please, we are pushed for time." The suit finally spoke. "I will personally add in a hundred credit bonus if we are out of here and on our way to the other establishment within two minutes!"

That was the clincher for Gryve. She mentally did the sums in her head. Triple time and a hundred credits would push her 'escape fund' to reaching the solar system of OMS. One jump from Federation space. She grabbed her bag from behind the bar and was now heading to the exit followed by the sickly looking stick man. He finally caught up with her in the lift.

"So what's the deal?" she asked as the doors closed and the man pressed an ID card against the lift console.

"At another establishment they have suffered a severe and sudden staff shortage. The club caters for VIPs so being short staffed is not an option, these are the type of people who do not wait for their drinks. We did a quick scan of all registered waiting staff on the station. The club has a very strict recruitment policy, they do not hire just anyone. You appeared to look like you would fit in for the night. As we were desperate we agreed a rent rebate for your current employer and the enhanced pay rate for you for one night."

Gryve listened and realised something. A rent rebate could only mean one thing. The station owners were involved. This was highly unusual. Why would a mega-corp be bothered if a club on one of its stations was understaffed? Before she could ask the lift door opened. However it was not a busy promenade that it opened onto, but a small room with heavily armed guards. She started to get very nervous. The station lifts always opened onto street level. Well the ones she used anyway.

"What is this?" she asked.

The suit looked at her like she'd just asked a stupid question. "A security station. Why?"

She just shrugged as he led her out. They approached the desk and the man handed over a card.

"One guest to sign in." he said to the guard. "You'll need to give your ID." he said to Gryve.

She fished the card from her bag and passed it to the guard who eyed it suspiciously before going to work on the terminal.

"Minor flag sir, on the local database. Normally that would be enough to refuse entry at this level." the guard said in a measured tone.

"What's the flag?" the suit asked casually.

"Your guest is on the Federal Police database. Missing persons report filed some nine months ago. Local police followed up with a 'Contacted and closed' note."

The Suit looked at Gryve and raised an eyebrow.

"I was stuck in a farming community of 300 people with my parents. I left. I'm an adult. I cannot see how you can class it as running away, I wasn't a child." she said defensively.

The Suit turned back to the guard. "I will personally authorise her. Put her down as my responsibility."

The guard nodded and tapped something into the console. She was then guided towards a scanner and bathed in a blue light. Once they were sure she wasn't carrying any prohibited items they were let though. Finally they exited the security room and stepped out back into the station proper.

Gryve gasped. She had never seen a deck like it. Massive windows looked out into deep space. Ponds and streams flowed with water winding around real trees and plants. It was amazing.

"What is this place?" she asked as the suit motioned for her to follow.

"Deck five. Why?"

Gryve stopped dead. It hit her all at once. Like many structures in New Eden, you followed the money to the top. The bottom levels of space stations were the cheapest. The top ten decks were usually reserved for the elite. CEOs, Executive Directors, music and film stars. Unless you had vast money or power, you couldn't get past deck 10.

She jogged to catch up with the suit who was heading to a small group of shops.

"Where are we going?"

"To get you dressed!" he said sharply without turning. "Your current outfit is fine for a sports bar frequented by rough miner types but is utterly unacceptable at the club."

Grye looked down at her strappy white top with the asteroid print and bar name on the front, light blue pleated skirt, white ankle socks and trainers. She agreed with him, probably not the attire for a waitress in a VIP club.

The majority of shops appeared to be closed. It was coming to 2300 hours station-time so that was unsurprising. One appeared to be still lit although the 'closed' sign hung on the door. The suit ignored the sign and pushed through the door.

"Kasata! Darling!" An older Gallente woman walked over and embraced the suit within seconds of him entering. The shop appeared to be a very fashionable boutique.

"Illuele. You have my gratitude for this."

"No problem Darling," she replied "and I take it this is our subject?"

Gryve looked at the flamboyant woman.

"Yes. I know its a tall order, but she needs to be ready to wait at The Falcon Club in fifty five minutes."

The lady approached Gryve and looked her up and down whilst slowly circling her.

"Darling. No problem! You picked an excellent canvas for me. You always have an eye for these things. You should work in the fashion industry!"

Mr Shigakkari nodded and turned to Gryve.

This is Mistress Illuele. She'll get you a uniform and have you dropped to the club. The owner is expecting you. At 4am one of my staff will be outside the club to return you to the lower decks. You're wages, any bonus and the hundred extra I promised will be transferred direct to your account on completion of your shift. Good bye Gryve."

Gryve wanted to say something but just couldn't find the words. As the door swung shut behind him she thought she should have asked him how did he know her account details. Then she realised he probably knew more about her than herself.

-o0o-

Gryve stepped out of the vehicle at just before midnight. The Falcon Club was a huge imposing building. It was jet black and shimmered in the night-time lights of the station promenade. A massive platinum sculpture of a Falcon was placed above the red double doors. Two large Brutor bouncers saw her approach and one whispered something into a throat mic. As she approached a Gallente man opened the door from the inside.

"Gryve?"

She nodded and he suddenly was smiling.

"Thank you! You are really saving our asses tonight." he said opening the door for her. "I'm Obacan and I own the Falcon Club. We had two waitresses quit early in their shift and we were already short staffed. I'll get you settled in. Simple floor service. You'll have six tables to run. Nothing difficult."

They entered the main room and Gryve gasped. It was nothing like the 'roid miners bar she worked on down on deck 20. This was like something from something in a Gallente blockbuster movie. Deep red velvets and black satin gave the club a gothic feel. It was busy with most tables already filled. Both male and female dancers swayed, scantily clad on podiums and in cages suspended from the ceiling. It had a feel of pure opulence and was obviously very, very expensive.

The reasons why two waitresses would quit mid-shift played on her mind but she decided she need the extra money more than she needed to know. She took off her coat and walked to one of the massive mirrors that were on most walls. She gazed at the stranger staring back at her. Her fifty minutes in Illuele's boutique had turned her from a waitress working at a miners bar to an elegant waitress from a high-class private members club. Her hair, make up and outfit were stunning.

She then thought about what she was wearing, what they had actualy dressed her in. She decided finally the extra money would not be worth certain things.

"Look, Obacan, I'm a bit worried. The outfit I'm wearing, I mean the dress and the shoes are OK, but the underwear I was made to put on. I don't do that, my body is not for sale." she said to Obacan sheepishly.

Obacan laughed. "Don't worry. I know how it looks but Mistress Illuele has full reign to dress our staff and she selects the uniform for the Falcon Club. The revealing attire and what she terms as the exquisite lingerie is her choice. Something about its supposed to give you confidence in the presence of these VIPs. Seriously, you are expected to wait tables and serve drinks, nothing more, nothing less. The only time any customer is likely to see any of that underwear is if you bend over wrong. Bend at the knees and you'll be fine! Yes, some of the patrons may get a bit flirty and a bit hands on but our policies are clear on that. We expect you to handle any such incident diplomatically but firmly. These people are rich and powerful so we really don't want to upset them, but neither do they have the right to go too far. After working in a miners bar I don't you'll experience anything you haven't before nor have any issues dealing with our slightly more refined guests. If you do, please come and see me discreetly and we'll sort it."

She smiled, a lot happier now and headed to the bar and collected a gleaming silver tray of drinks.

-o0o-

Two hours later and she was dead on her feet. The fashionable killer-heels Illuele had provided looked amazing but were not made for waiting in. However, Gryve had never made as much cash in tips ever. Five of her six tables now stood empty. She was taking drinks over to the last couple still sat at one of her tables. They were a married pair of executives out here for business from what she overheard. They had also asked for the bill when ordering their drinks so these would be their last she assumed. As the man was pressing his thumb to the datapad to accept the charges Gryve felt a soft hand glide up her leg. She looked over her shoulder to see the lady take a credit-note from her purse and gently slip it in the lace top of Gryve's stockings. Gryve kept her cool and just smiled even though a complete stranger had their hand up her barely there see-though skirt. The lady removed her hand, gave a cheeky wink and picked up her drink.

Back at the bar she handed the payment datapad back to the barkeeper.

"Think you'll make the last two hours?" he said with a smile.

"I will, my feet may be destroyed beyond repair, but I'll survive until four." she replied.

"Tips going OK? Some of our guests can be a little hands on." he said nodding over to the couple she just served.

"You saw that then? I usually work in a miners bar on deck 20. I hate it, but with my current situation I'll accept it as it means I won't have to put up with it for so long. Plus I'd take faux-lessy pawing as opposed to rough-palmed, groping miners any day of the week." Gryve smiled retrieving the note the woman had slipped into her stockings. She looked at the note open mouthed in shock when she saw it was 100 credits. A contact number was hand written in one corner.

"Not so faux eh?" the barman laughed "And seriously, you usually work in a miners bar?" he asked surprised.

"Yeah. Some deal was struck to second me here for the night. Apparently you lost some staff tonight? What happened there? I mean this gig appears to be too good to just jack in. The tips are amazing."

"I'm not sure. Traude and Yollyllere took drinks to one of the upstairs VIP rooms and next thing I heard they are no longer working for us. Never saw them leave. Only thing I can guess is its some asshat CEO who took a dislike to them and told management to sack them just because they could. Happens occasionally. Our guests are very rich and very powerful. They can also act like spoilt kids."

"Thats horrid!" she replied. "Some people!" shaking her head.

The barman nodded. "Yeah, with great power comes great asshattery. Looks like you have new customers." he indicated behind her.

Gryve turned around and saw a group of Caldari men had taken one of her tables. Bankers? She shook her feet, engaged her best smile and walked over to take their order.

-o0o-

The Caldari bankers had proved to be more than a handful. They had been very drunk already and tried it on with her. She had managed to tactfully deal with their advances. They then tried to get on stage with one of the dancers and the bouncers had appeared from nowhere to escort them out. Thankfully they had paid for the expensive bottle of champagne that they had ordered. Gryve was back at the bar counting down the ninety minutes.

"Damn it where is Halertan?" the barman growled referring to another of the waitresses Gryve had met earlier. She shrugged in response.

"The VIP upstairs has just buzzed for service. Where the hell is she?"

"I could go?" Gryve offered.

"No. Thanks but thats the guy we've lost two waitresses to already tonight. He needs someone experienced at dealing with these rich asshats. He'd eat you up and spit you out!"

Gryve watched him glance nervously about. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the buzzer went a second time. "Shit, one more buzz and I'll be the one losing my job." he moaned.

"Look, I've got less than an hour and a half left, let me go. Whats the worse that could happen? I don't care, the manager can sack me for show. The VIP doesn't know I'm not really an employee does he?"

The barman shrugged in resignation. "I guess. You sure?"

Gryve nodded, picked up her tray and walked towards the discreet stair case that led to the VIP rooms. The upper level was small, just four doors were there, three stood partly open. She glanced into one in curiosity and saw the breath-taking VIP suite. Again she was transported to some Gallente blockbuster movie and could imagine Serpentis crime-bosses spending their ill-gotten gains in one of these surrounded by booze and drugs, and of course glamorous mols. Gryve approached the one closed door. A feint beat of music could be heard from within. She pressed the doorcall and waited. A moment later the door opened and she stepped in. She was instantly transported directly right into that Gallente blockbuster movie fantasy. A Caldari man was sat on the sofa opposite. A stunningly attractive woman wearing very little was located either side of him. Around the suite a few other couples and singles whispered in conversation and lounged about on the various sofas and armchairs. In the corner two women in just their underwear kissed each other passionately.

"You are not Halertan?" the Caldari man said in a measured tone.

"No sir. I'm Gryve and I am here to get your drinks. How may I be of service?"

The man leant forward and looked her up and down. A slightly bemused smile on his face. "You're new. I know pretty much everyone who works here."

"Yes sir. This is my first night at the Falcon Club."

The Caldari man smile, glimpsing over to the two women in the corner.

"Staffing problems I presume?" he smirked returning his gaze to Gryve.

"What can I get you?" Gryve asked again, looking to deflect the question and hoping the anger she felt at this asshat wasn't detectable.

"Amarrian Platinum Imperial Reserve Vodka, bring the bottle. I also require three bottles of Gallente Champagne. I think there is still some Agrallarier II '03 left. Also ice, we are going to need a lot of ice."

Gryve nodded with a smile and left the room. As she could almost feel his eyes burning into her back. She returned down to the bar and gave the order. The barman placing the bottles on the tray as she recounted the order to him.

"A 12,000 credit round. That VIP doesn't do things by half!" Gryve was glad she wasn't holding the tray as she would have dropped it.

"What? Twelve thousand credits? You cannot be serious!"

"That bubbly is two and a half large a pop. The vodka makes up the rest. Probably only 12 bottles of that in the Federation. Trade with the Amarr has suffered of late with the Empyrean Wars. Stocks of the real premium stuff are running low so prices are running high."

Gryve left the bar shaking her head. On the tray that she was holding very carefully with both hands were bottles worth more than she would earn in a year and a half. She felt angry. This dick could throw money around that which could make a massive difference to a dozen people that were barely scraping a living on this station. She pressed the door call button with her elbow and waited. She waited a lot longer this time and soon her arms were getting heavy. Was he doing this on purpose? Hoping she'd drop these expensive drinks? Put her in debt with the club for years? What sick game was he playing? Finally the door opened. Everything was as it was before. She entered and placed the large tray in front of the Caldari man.

"Shall I pour?" Gryve asked doing her best to remain civil.

"Please." he replied with that annoying smirk.

Gryve placed some ice in the glass and cracked open the bottle of vodka that was worth nearly five months of her salary. She poured a generous measure and handed it to the man. He took it with a nod of appreciation.

"And the others?" Gryve asked.

"They can serve themselves. Please, take a seat. Ladies, please excuse us."

The two scantily clad beauties either side of him smiled and rose. They relocated to a small sofa in the corner.

"Sorry, I cannot. I have to get back to work." she stammered.

"No you don't. I messaged the owner whilst you were getting the drinks. I told him you'd be joining us."

"Do you always get what you ask for?" she asked guardedly as she sat in a chair opposite trying to keep her distance.

"You say 'ask' like someone would ever say no to me." he said sipping the vodka.

Gryve realised this man was supremely confident and that his wealth and power meant nobody ever did say no to him. Actually she thought that he probably never really asked, he demanded politely.

"Must be nice to be like that." she replied.

"No. Its fracking boring." he replied. His sudden expletive catching her by surprise. "Much more fun to deal with people who aren't complete kiss-asses like most I meet."

"What, like the two waitresses you got sacked earlier?"

He raised an eyebrow. His expression showing he was surprised by her.

"Who told you that?" he asked sipping his drink.

"Why? You want to get them sacked as well?" Gryve replied, the words out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"I haven't got anyone sacked. Those two ladies decided to quit. There, pick that up, by your feet there."

Gryve looked down, there was some black clothing by her feet. She reached down and picked it up. It was a basque dress with wispy skirt identical to the one she wore. She saw another by her feet. She spun around and looked at the two women in the corner. They wore identical shoes and lingerie to what she was wearing. The two waitresses!

"I get the feeling you do get whatever you want. However some people just cannot be bought." Gryve said turning back to the VIP. "And no matter how much money you have. In the end you cannot take it with you."

"Yes, yes and yes."

"Yes to all? What do you mean."

"Yes, I always get what I want. Yes, everyone can be brought, everyone has a price. And yes, you can take it with you sort to speak... if you never die."

Gryve swallowed hard in fear as the realisation hit her. This was no corporate executive or financial guru. He was no CEO or mogul in the music industry. He was a Capsuleer. An immortal starship captain. Some called them eggers or pod-jockeys. However, the only name for them that sprung to Gryve's mind was "Angels of Death". The man sitting opposite her could be a hauler or industrialist. However that was unlikely. Almost certainly he was a combat pilot. A man who had killed thousands of people over his career."

"I think I should go." Gryve whispered meekly, now very intimidated with the man sat opposite.

"Not yet. I want to disprove your theory first. Cat?"

An Amarrian woman who was sat in the corner chatting stood and walked over. Gryve watched her. She moved like her name, graceful like a cat. Gryve couldn't shake the feeling that she was the pray. Her clothing was exquisite, some designer dress scooped low at the front. Gryve didn't know the designer but guessed the short dress probably cost the same as a years salary to her.

"Gryve this is Cat, Cat this is Gryve who believes some people cannot be bought." the man smiled.

Cat smiled at Gryve and sat down next to her. Gryve could smell expensive perfume and feel the heat of the other womans body as she was sat so close. A soft hand gently squeezed her knee.

"As this is our last night here in Nisuwa I thought we'd have some fun in challenging that theory, what do you think Cat?"

Gryve smiled weakly, now very worried.

-o0o-

Next day......

The barman was checking the inventory of the bar in the Falcon Club. It was an hour before opening so he was ensuring he had all the bottles with sufficient contents for the night. The click of heels made him look up. He saw Gryve approaching.

"Hey you! Pleasantly surprised to see you back! You look happy."

Gryve smiled back as she reached the bar.

"You did so well they gave you a permanent job?" he asked. "We need more good staff after that asshat got Traude and Yollyllere fired."

"He didn't get them fired. They quit of their own choice." Gryve replied casually.

The barman looked at her confused.

"The VIP got chatting to them and Traude had mentioned something about some people cannot be bought. Yollyllere agreed. This guy likes a challenge so went out of his way to disprove their theory."

The barman scratched his head.

"So what DID happen?" he asked

"When they said they couldn't be bought he offered them fifty thousand each to strip to their underwear and kiss. He then offered them an extra hundred thousand each if they quit there and then and spent the rest of the night continuing in the corner of his VIP suite."

The barman nearly dropped the bottle.

"Seriously? They each left here with a hundred and fifty large!"

"Yes. Capsuleers, they are 'special' aren't they!"

"He was an egger? Figures. So did the boss hire you to replace Traude and Yollyllere? I'm expecting they won't be back after that windfall?"

"No, Obacan no longer owns the Falcon Club. I do."

The barmans jaw almost hit the floor.

"But, but, but, this place is worth a few million credits easy! How in Divinities Edge could you afford......"

He stopped suddenly and looked suspiciously at Gryve who smiled at him, winked and turned towards her new office at the back of the club. She closed the door behind her and saw a large bunch of red roses on the desk. She picked up the card.

'To Gryve. Best of luck with your new club. I enjoyed myself last night. I know Drack did too. Hope you don't have any regrets. Everyone in New Eden has their price. Love, Cat.'

Gryve smiled as she recalled the night before and the way the two capsuleers had utterly proved anyone could be bought. She sat at her desk and picked up her datapad. Waitress in a miners bar to owner of an exclusive executive club in 18 hours. Not bad going at all. Movement caught her eye and she looked out of the small viewport. Two massive Archon class carriers undocked from the hanger exit and slowed, stopping just outside the station undock. Their golden hulls glinting in the bright sunlight. A sudden flash of pulsing red energy flared and both ships vanished vanished. Their jump drives creating an artificial wormhole propelling them to a distant star system.

"Good bye Cat and Drack. Hope your new home is as interesting as here!"

Why Move Plex & Drack the Squid

Earlier in the week this happened.

54 BILLION ISK of PLEX being moved in an Ibis. Seriously? Two things here....

1. Always Expect Suicide Ganking
If your cargo is worth substantially more than the cost of the ships that would be needed to kill it, then you are at risk. Generally you can work on 30% roughly of fittings and cargo dropping as loot I think? Somewhere around there anyway. So if you are flying with 3bn ISK in your cargo hold the gankers can expect probably 1bn ISK to drop. If they need 500m ISK of ships to suicide-gank you then they may go "Meh, probably not worth it". This dude put 54bn, a potential payout of 16bn if they hadn't been stacked, inside a ship that could be suicide ganked by a 1m ISK destroyer in a single shot. The loot fairy works on single items or entire stacks of items. Eight fitted guns each have a chance of dropping, a single stack of 50 of those guns in the hold will either all drop or all burn. It was crying out to be suicide ganked. To be honest it would have been more of a tragedy if he hadn't been ganked.

2. There is NO Reason to Move PLEX
Well, I guess thats not 100% correct. PLEX prices do fluctuate around the cluster so money can be made buying cheap in Jita and shipping out to other places. However, when we look at the mechanics we can see that actually PLEX prices should be all the same. As there is no need to move PLEX they should be the same price all over. The reason they are different is that so many players do not realise how you can use PLEX without having to move it. PLEX are different prices around New Eden simply because of ignorance of game mechanics. What you do is......

Actually I'm not going to say. I feel its better for the game and the generated publicity to keep this thing happening over and over again. Yes, we more than likely lost a subscriber to WoW over this. However, how many more did we gain when people saw the news stories and thought "I'll give that game a try!". On the flip side I think anyone who reads an Eve Online blog probably knows more about the mechanics than casual Eve players and already knows how to buy and use PLEX in Jita without having to have your main there. So if I spelt out the method here it would make no real difference in the amount of people derping PLEX into suicide gankers. Most reading this blog would just go "Well, duuuurrrr!".

Then again I get a lot of hits from people Googling "how to remove bounty in Eve online". I'll be safe just in case and keep quiet!


Now onto me and my move to the Caldari Militia...


So on Boxing Day I was able to evac all my stuffz (tm) from Nisuwa and join up with CCDM in Hasmajala. So how is my new home? Generally excellent!

Solo Action
Been plenty of opertunity for 1v1 in my new home. The Gallente Militia, erm Frog Scum I mean, have been pushing the area hard and there are usually some war targets about. There are also a fair few pirate organisations about who roam solo. Although with their speeds and scram range I do wonder how "solo" some of these guys are. May be I should be taking advantage of some Link-Lurvin' as I've certainly been handed my ass due to other using them.

Special shout out to Lee Church of Aideron. A persistant Frog who is active solo in my TZ, or was this week. With Christmas breaks all TZ's are a bit messed up currently. We had some good fights together whilst it was generally off-peak for most.

Fleet Action
The number one reason for leaving QCats was I wanted fleets. I'd been solo for two and a half years and yearned for some fleet pewpew. One of the main reasons I joined CCDM was looking at their killboard it appeared they were engaged in fleet action during my prime-time. Was I wrong?

Since joining I've had some great gang fights. Algos drone swarms, suicide Derplins, brawling Thrashers, sniper Corms! In fact I've used up most of my ships I brought and used Black Frog Logistics for the first time to being in two jump freighters of frigates and destroyers.

The fleet action I think is better than usual given that the Gallente had made a push for Hasmajala. DOTLAN showed Has as the top low-sec system for kills after Monday's push by the Frog Bastards (see I'm getting the hang of this 'other side' lark finally!).

Looking forward to a lot more killing in 2015!

Thanks a Bunch QCats!

Whilst I was waiting for my application to join CCDM one of the long standing guys in QCATS took over as CEO and announced he was taking them back into Faction war and trying to get the Corp active again. This made no difference to me. QCATS prime time was always when I was sleeping. I had been happy soloing for two and a half years. I wanted some fleet action and studied the killboards carefully to find a group active (fleet wise) in my prime time. QCATS being out of faction war or being inactive were not my reasons for leaving. Time zone differences/getting bored of solo and a thirst for fleets was.

I had to ask them to delay for a few days as it would be a major PITA for me if the rejoined before I moved. Given faction war docking mechanics if they had joined Gallente Militia before I left I'd have had to drop corp to be able to dock at my new home station. If I joined CCDM then I'd only be able to undock in my carrier and not redock. Meaning if I got pointed on station I'd be buggered.

Anyway, Andre was a very nice chap and I was able to move both carriers and my dreadnought out of Nisuwa and join CCDM before the QCATS rejoined faction war. And rejoin they did, obviously Gallente again.

I expected the "spai" comments anyway when I decided CCDM was the best choice for me. Five years Gallente Militia and moving over to the Caldari was bound to raise some eyebrows. When QCATS said they'd be rejoining faction war as I was leaving I'd knew it would be worse. I started seeing some of the old Caldari guard such as good old GavinGoodRich, one of the Caldari's main FC's back in the golden age of Faction War (09-11).....

Drackarn > GavinGoodrich o/

GavinGoodrich > lol drack what're you doin' here :D

Moglarr > He saw the light, lol

Drackarn > I've come over to the dark side. Something about ruling the universe blardy blardy blardy

Mr Duffo was less subtle...

Mr Duffo > omg you

Mr Duffo > who recruitted spy

Scylus Black > Mr Duffo lol

So yeah, most long serving Caldari Militia who I have fought against are going to be naturally suspicious of me :(

In summary, my previous corp is back in Faction War at the worse possible time for me! I'll hopefully be running into them soon. Running in to them? I mean shooting them in the face and saying GF in local when all (read theirs) ships are wrecks. However, please feel free to leave all "thats just what a spy would say" comments below.  Get them off your chest. I feel there will be plenty for me in the coming weeks. ;)

SCASSSS - Can't Take the Heat

Whilst trying a Blerin (Blaster Merlin) I was engaged by a Breacher. It was a very close fight and required me to change ammo and to overheat.... a lot! Overheating can win you the battle but you have to be careful, a few more seconds and I'd have been burning things out and would have died in a glorious fireball!

GF Breacher, GF.

Repost - A Very Caldari Christmas

Fiction Friday but... yeah... Christmas. Hope you all had a good time, I know I did and that has left very little time for writing. So here we have one I did last year.

A Very Caldari Christmas

The equivalent of Christmas in the Caldari State is 'The Day of the Secede'. This refers to the day in 23154 where the Caldari officially left the Gallente Federation and the State became independent. Of course this kicked of a massive war, but still, any excuse for a celebration.

It is said that the first leader of the Caldari State commissioned a spectacular robot to celebrate their new independence. The Gallente were seen as masters of robotics at the time and the State wanted to prove it could be better than them.This self-repairing android was years ahead of its time and there are rumours that much of the technology used within the Android was given to the State by the sympathetic Jovians. An advanced AI was implanted in the droid and a powerful reactor positioned inside its core. Using nanobots and Jovian (alleged) replication technology the droid could create objects out of thin air. Well, not thin air exactly, its from its available massive reserves of power and sub-atomic engineering. With this technology the robot could self-repair and essentially 'live' forever.

When the robot was completed, the first head of the Caldari State, asked to be alone with the robot. He sat with it for two days talking of his dreams for the fledgling State. The robot listened intently, for his prime directive was to help the State become great. After the mammoth talk the robot went into a hibernation mode, saying it needed to think. The scientists and engineers where shocked at this, but let it play out to see what happened. For a year and a day the robot slept. The monitors were showing it was processing immense amounts of data. It ran scenarios and predictive models covering countless billions of people and hundreds of settlements.

Exactly a year and a day after it entered hibernation mode, it awoke. It requested to see the Head of State again and the supreme leader of the State cancelled important meetings to meet the robot. The State's advisor said it was madness, as since the robot had been in hibernation all-out war had broken out with the Gallente and matters of State were much more important than a robot mainly built to celebrate the birth of the State.

The robot explained to the leader that it had modelled millions of scenarios for improving the State. It had come to the conclusion that the children were the key. They needed to be taught right from wrong and that hard work and good behaviour would be rewarded and laziness and disobedience would be punished. This would prepare them for adult life in the glorious Caldari State.

When asked what he needed to do to achieve this vision, the leader was told that he need to do nothing.

"Oh great ruler of the glorious Caldari State. In my year and a day of sleep I have learnt that this task is my purpose. It is why I was created. I shall go forth and monitor every boy and girl in the State. I will reward those that have worked hard and been good. But I will punish those who are lazy and disobedient."

And so the robot left, never to be seen again. The next 'Day of the Secede' the news channels were abuzz with the story that millions of a Caldari children had awoken to find presents left for them. Apparently not all children received gifts. Those who didn't try at school, those were disobedient to their parents, they got nothing. Just a simple slip stating their misdemeanour's throughout the year. This is said to form part of their permanent record in the State. One or two 'black slips' was not a problem, but should the child receive three or more, their future job prospects would be bleak.

So, young child of the State, have you been good this year? Have you worked hard at school so you will become a great citizen? Have you put in the effort so when you grow up you can join the ranks of the leaders of the mega-corps? If you have, you can expect a reward as the robot visits your house on Secede Eve. But if you haven't, may be there will be a black-slip waiting for you. Be careful young citizen, you don't want to be a labourer in a dirty, cold asteroid mine do you?